Chapter 13: The Roaring Life of the 1920s

1. Chapter 13: The Roaring Life of the 1920s

2. Objectives • To understand such issues as Prohibition, the changing role of women, and the influence of the Harlem Renaissance.

3. Section 1: Changing Ways of Life

4. Journal • What differences exist today between urban (city) and rural lifestyles?

5. Rural and Urban Differences • 1922-1929 – 2 million people left the farm for the city every year • Big cities: New York City (5.6 million), Chicago (3 million), Philadelphia (2 million)

6. Rural and Urban Differences • Cities • Competition • Change • More reading • Discussions about science and social ideas • Various backgrounds • Drinking, casual dating, gambling • Farms • Slow paced • Live close to family and friends • Strict morals

7. Prohibition • 18th Amendment – manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol is illegal • Rural South and West, Protestants, Women’s Christian Temperance Union • After WWI Americans were tired of making sacrifices • Volstead Act established a Prohibition Bureau to enforce the law -> underfunded -> difficult to monitor all the roads and coastline

8. Speakeasies Underground/hidden saloons

9. Bootleggers • People who smuggled alcohol into the U.S.

10. Organized Crime • Chicago’s Al Capone was in control of 10,000 speakeasies • $60 million a year • 1933 – 21st Amendment repeals Prohibition

11. Central Question • Why was the 18th Amendment passed?

12. Discussion • 1. What problems did people see in society at the turn of the century? • 2. Why did they think Prohibition would solve these problems? • 3. What strategies/evidence did temperance advocates use to convince people to support Prohibition?

13. Video Clips • http://www.history.com/topics/al-capone/videos#st-valentines-day-massacre • The Untouchables

14. Journal • Should America continue to promote fascination with Capone through museums, memorabilia, and tours of gangland sites?

15. Rumrunners, Moonshiners, Bootleggers DVD • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4wl9n-Gmsw

16. Journal • What differences exist between urban (city) and rural (small town) lifestyles in the 1920s?

17. Science and Religion Clash • Fundamentalist religious groups vs. secular (nonreligious) thinkers • Issue = validity (strength/truth) of certain scientific discoveries

18. Science and Religion Clash • Waves of people become very religious • Question authority and elite • Passionate speakers feel a direct connection with God • The First Great Awakening (1740s-1750s) • The Second Great Awakening (1820s-1840s)

19. Science and Religion Clash • Fundamentalism (1920s) • Protestant movement • Belief in literal translation of the Bible – all stories in the Bible are true • Against the sins of modern life • Against Darwin’s theory of evolution • Preachers in the South and West lead religious revivals • Prohibit the teaching of evolution

20. The Scopes Trial • John T. Scopes – biology teacher from Dayton, Tenn. who challenges the Butler Act • American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) hires Clarence Darrow to defend him • William Jennings Bryan = prosecutor

21. Science and Religion Clash • Why did people care about the Butler Act? • Textbook – A Civic Biology • Go to the back of the Guiding Questions

22. http://historicalthinkingmatters.org/scopestrial/

23. Why did people care about the Butler Act?

24. Discussion • 1. Who supported the Butler Act? What were their reasons? • 2. Who opposed the Butler Act? What were their reasons? • 3. How did Reverend Straton view the big cities? How did the NY Times view Dayton, Tennessee? Why did those views play a role in the Scopes Trial? • 4. In what ways did the historical context of the 1920s affect the battle over the Butler Act? • 5. How was the Scopes Trial more than just a simple debate between evolution and creationism?

25. Science and Religion Clash • Fundamentalism – Protestant movement based on a literal interpretation of the Bible • All stories in the Bible are true • Reject theory of evolution = Charles Darwin’s theory that plant and animal species have changed over millions of years • Evolution from apes vs. Bible creationism Wanted laws to prohibit the teaching of evolution

26. The Scopes Trial • March 1925 Tennessee passes law outlawing the teaching of evolution • American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) defends John T. Scopes, a young biology public school teacher who tells students humans have evolved • Clarence Darrow defends Scopes • William Jennings Bryan prosecutes • Scopes is found guilty and law stays in effect

27. Now and Then • 1999 – Kansas State School Board votes to eliminate the teaching of evolution • Supreme Court says evolution must only be taught as scientific fact + creationism may not be taught as scientific fact (in public schools)

28. Assignment • 1. Issue -> Legislation -> Outcome • Issue = prohibition (illegal to sell or manufacture) • Issue = teaching evolution • 2. Explain how urbanization created a new way of life that often clashed with the values of traditional rural society. • 3. Describe the controversy over the role of science and religion in American education and society in the 1920s.

29. Section 2: The Twenties Woman

30. Journal • How is the music you listen to different than the music your parents listen to? • Do you think your attitude towards life is different than your parents?

31. Young Women Change the Rules • A rebellious, pleasure-loving atmosphere of the 1920s • independence • 19th Amendment – women suffrage • Flapper = a free young woman who embraced the new fashions and current urban attitudes • Shorter dresses, smoked cigarettes, talked about sex, danced • Marriage = more of an equal partnership

32. Dancing • Fox trot, camel walk, tango, Charleston, shimmy, dance marathon • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcemYjTdvZ8

33. Flappers were like women of today because ______________ and they were unlike women of today because __________________________.

34. Young Woman Change the Rules • Still influenced by tradition/church • Casual dating becomes more accepted • The Double Standard = a set of principles granting greater sexual freedom to men than to women

35. Women Shed Old Roles at Home and at Work • How were women freed from some household chores?

36. Women Shed Old Roles at Home and at Work • Time saving appliances • Business growth leads to jobs for millions of women

37. Women Shed Old Roles at Home and at Work • Women replaced by men after WWI • “women’s professions” = teachers, nurses, librarians • Big business = typists, filing, assembly line workers • Few become managers • Earn less than men • Men felt women should stay at home (job competition)

38. The Changing Family

39. The Changing Family • Margaret Sanger opens birth control clinic (1916) • Women have more time for children and reading • Marriages are based more on romance • Children are in school • More social time, peer pressure, rebellious children

40. Double standard refers to stricter _________ standards for ____________ than for ___________ in the 1920s. • What is your opinion of the double standard? • Women had new roles in the 1920s such as __________________.

41. Assignment • 1. How do you think women’s lives changed most dramatically in the 1920s? • Think about families and jobs. • 2. Do you think that some women of this decade made real progress towards equality? • Think about double standard, the flapper’s style and image, changing views of marriage

42. Section 3: Education and Popular Culture

43. Schools and the Mass Media Shape Culture • 1914 = 1 million American students in high school -> college-bound • 1926 = 4 million -> college-bound and vocational training • Before WWI – a million immigrants a year come to America

44. Expanding News Coverage • Literacy increased • Newspapers printed sensational stories

45. Radio • By 1930 – 40 percent of American households had radios • News and sporting events

46. America Chases New Heroes • More money + more leisure time = money for entertainment

47. Sports Heroes

48. Charles Lindberg • First non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic

49. Entertainment and the Arts • “Talkies” doubled the movie attendance • The Jazz Singer 1927 • Disney’s Steamboat Willie 1928 • Video clip • Georgia O’Keeffe

50. Writers of the 1920s • Sinclair Lewis • F. Scott Fitzgerald • The Great Gatsby • “Jazz Age” • Edna St. Vincent Millay • Ernest Hemmingway • The Sun Also Rises • A Farewell to Arms • Many denounced war • Addressed political and social topics • Negative side of the freedom of the 1920s